Myelinated nerve fibers in the rat kidney. Light- and electron microscopic studies.

Thinly and richly myelinated nerve fibers in the rat kidney are demonstrated by light and electron microscopy. They run within the peripheral nerves in the periadventitia of the arteria rencularis and arteria arcuata and seem to end in the innermost renal cortex at the boundary to the renal medulla. Sporadically, a single myelinated fiber is found in this region, running near tubuli or in the neighbourhood of a glomerulus. No ganglion cells were seen within the renal parenchyma. The intrarenal medullated nerve fibers are assumed to be afferent. They sometimes showed reactive and degenerative changes in pathologically altered kidneys.